Data from: Australian native mammals recognise and respond to alien predators: a meta-analysis

Prey naiveté is a failure to recognise novel predators and thought to
cause exaggerated impacts of alien predators on native wildlife. Yet there
is equivocal evidence in the literature for native prey naiveté towards
aliens. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis of Australian mammal
responses to native and alien predators. Australia has the world’s worst
record of extinction and declines of native mammals, largely due to two
alien predators introduced some 150 years ago: the feral cat, Felis catus,
and European red fox, Vulpes vulpes. Analysis of 94 responses to predator
cues show that Australian mammals consistently recognise alien foxes as a
predation threat, possibly because of thousands of years experience with
another canid predator, the dingo, Canis lupus dingo. We also found
consistent recogntion responses towards feral cats, however in 4 of the 7
studies available, these responses were of risk-taking behaviour rather
than antipredator behaviour. Our results suggest that a simple failure to
recognise alien predators is not behind the ongoing exaggerated impacts of
alien predators in Australia. Instead, our results highlight an urgent
need to better understand the appropriateness of antipredator responses in
prey towards alien predators in order to understand native prey
vulnerability.